Fugees rapper Pras Michel found guilty in corruption case
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Michel currently faces up to 20 years in prison according to the Justice Department and was charged with acting as an unregistered agent for China, concealment and false record-keeping, witness tampering, and false statements.
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Rapper Pras Michel and lawyer David Kenner at federal court for his trial on March 30, 2023. (Reuters)
The Fugees rapper Pras Michel was found guilty on Wednesday of money laundering, illicit political donations, and funneling money from a billion-dollar Malaysia scam into US politics - and Leonardo DiCaprio was a witness in his trial.
Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho was the orchestrator of the scam that stole from a Malaysian state investment fund known as 1MDB into US real estate, fine art, and funded Hollywood films like The Wolf of Wall Street, which DiCaprio starred in.
The money was secretly funneled into then-president Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign via hidden origins, by Michel, who was also accused of joining a secret lobbying effort with a senior Republican financier in 2017, in an effort to help China repatriate billionaire Guo Wengui who had close ties to former president Donald Trump's political strategist Steve Bannon.
Michel currently faces up to 20 years in prison, according to the Justice Department, and was charged with acting as an unregistered agent for China, concealment and false record-keeping, witness tampering, and false statements.
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Dicaprio testified in court regarding Malaysian Financier Low's wild spending sprees and lavish parties with Hollywood stars that sometimes included Michel, and his funding of movies with stars like DiCaprio.
"I understood him to be a huge businessman with many different connections in Abu Dhabi, Malaysia... a sort of prodigy in the business world, incredibly successful," DiCaprio said at the trial, adding that Low "mentioned in passing that he... was going to give a significant contribution to the Democratic Party... a significant sum, around 20 to 30 million dollars."
Harry Lidsk, a special agent of the Justice Department, asserted, "Michel played a central role in a wide-ranging conspiracy to improperly influence top government officials."
